1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a circuit for realizing a hardware circuit for recognition of patterns containing equivocation information.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The fuzzy neuron makes a pattern recognition with respective grades of patterns determined by comparing and collating between the output of a sensor on a feature extracting line and the membership function of each of the preset patterns using the minimum and maximum value calculations. The details of the fuzzy neuron are described in Yamakawa, "A Fuzzy Neuron Chip and Its Application to a Pattern Recognition System", IFSA'91, 1991 and Japanese Patent Application entitled "Fuzzy Neuron" filed by Takeshi Yamakawa on May 26, 1989.
In the fuzzy neuron, the recognition is performed by extracting the feature of a pattern from a feature extracting line and recognizing the extracted information. The feature extracting line is divided into parts, the number of divided parts representing the resolution of the feature extracting line and being known as a Cardinal number (k).
When the fuzzy neuron theory is realized by hardware, the latter is generally classified into two types, serial type and parallel type. The serial type hardware is simple in circuit and has an increased degree of freedom although the computing speed is slower. On the other hand, the parallel type hardware is difficult to extend with a fixed Cardinal number although the computing speed is faster.
In a field requiring increase in the computing speed, thus, the parallel type hardware is preferably used.
The necessary Cardinal number is different from one pattern to be recognized to another. In order to realize a general-purpose fuzzy neuron hardware, the Cardinal number is required to be variable depending on an object to be recognized.
If the general-purpose fuzzy neuron is to be realized according to the prior art as a parallel type hardware, the Cardinal number cannot be variable and extended since it is fixed by the fact that computing blocks corresponding to the respective feature extracting lines are parallel to and independent of each other.